Oxygen Production

R David Britt, University of California, Davis, California, USA

Published online: April 2001

DOI: 10.1038/npg.els.0001384

Photosystem II utilizes visible light to drive the oxidation of water, resulting in bio-activated electrons and protons, with the production of molecular oxygen as a byproduct. This water-splitting reaction is carried out by a manganese cluster/tyrosine radical ensemble, the oxygen-evolving complex.

Keywords: Kok cycles; manganese; photosystem II; tyrosine radicals; water oxidation

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the photosystem II reaction centre. (Figure provided by Drs Dee Ann Force and David W. Randall.)
Figure 2. The S-state scheme. (Figure provided by Dr Jeffrey M. Peloquin.)
Figure 3. Manganese EPR signals of PS II. (Figure provided by Dr Kris Campbell. S0 spectrum provided by Dr Johannes Messinger.)
Figure 4. A structural model of the oxygen evolving complex. The Mn(III) and Mn(IV) oxidation state assignments arise from simulations of the S2 state multiline EPR spectrum. (Figure provided by Dr Jeffrey M. Peloquin.)
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 References
    Ahlbrink R, Haumann M, Cherepanov D, Bögershausen O, Mulkidjanian A and Junge W (1998) Function of tyrosine Z in water oxidation by photosystem II: electrostatical promoter instead of hydrogen abstractor. Biochemistry 37: 1131–1142.
    Britt RD, Peloquin JM and Campbell KA (2000) Pulsed and parallel polarization EPR characterization of the manganese cluster of the photosystem II oxygen evolving complex. Annual Reviews of Biophysics and Biomolecular Structure 29: 463–495.
    Brudvig GW and Crabtree RH (1986) Mechanism for photosynthetic  O2 evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 83: 4586–4588.
    Campbell KA, Peloquin JM, Pham DP, Debus RJ and Britt RD (1998) Parallel polarization epr detection of an S1-state ‘multiline’ epr signal in photosystem II particles from Synechocystis sp. PCC 6803. Journal of the American Chemical Society 120: 447–448.
    Caudle MT and Pecoraro VL (1997) Thermodynamic viability of hydrogen atom transfer from water coordinated to the oxygen-evolving complex of photosystem II. Journal of the American Chemical Society 119: 3415–3416.
    Dismukes GC and Siderer Y (1981) Intermediates of a polynuclear manganese center involved in photosynthetic oxidation of water. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 78: 274–278.
    Gilchrist ML, Ball JA, Randall DW and Britt RD (1995) Proximity of the manganese cluster of photosystem II to the redox active tyrosine YZ. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 92: 9545–9549.
    Hoganson CW and Babcock GT (1997) A metalloradical mechanism for the generation of oxygen from water in photosynthesis. Science 277: 1953–1956.
    Limburg J, Vrettos JS, Liable-Sands LM, Rheingold AL, Crabtree RH and Brudvig GW (1999) A functional model for O–O bond formation by the  O2-evolving complex in photosystem II. Science 283: 1524–1527.
    Messinger J, Robblee JH, Yu WO, Sauer K, Yachandra VK and Klein MP (1997) The S0 state of the oxygen-evolving complex in photosystem II is paramagnetic: detection of an epr multiline signal. Journal of the American Chemical Society 119: 11349–11350.
    Peloquin JM, Campbell KA and Britt RD (1998) 55Mn pulsed endor demonstrates that the photosystem II ‘split’ epr signal arises from a magnetically-coupled mangano-tyrosyl complex. Journal of the American Chemical Society 120: 6840–6841.
    Stubbe J and van der Donk WA (1998) Protein radicals in enzyme catalysis. Chemical Reviews 98: 705–762.
    Yachandra VK, DeRose VJ, Latimer MJ, Mukerji I, Sauer K and Klein MP (1993) Where plants make oxygen: a structural model for the photosynthetic oxygen-evolving manganese cluster. Science 260: 675–679.
 Further Reading
    Barry BA and Babcock GT (1987) Tyrosine radicals are involved in the photosynthetic oxygen-evolving system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 84: 7099–7103.
    Berthold DA, Babcock GT and Yocum CF (1980) A highly resolved, oxygen-evolving photosystem II preparation from spinach thylakoid membranes. FEBS Letters 134: 231–234.
    book Britt RD (1996) "Oxygen evolution". In: Ort DR and Yocum CF (eds) Advances in Photosynthesis: Oxygenic Photosynthesis, The Light Reactions, pp. 137–164. Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic.
    book Britt RD (1996) "Electron spin echo methods in photosynthesis research". In: Hoff AJ and Amesz J (eds) Advances in Photosynthesis: Biophysical Techniques in Photosynthesis, pp. 235–253. Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic.
    Debus RJ (1992) The manganese and calcium ions of photosynthetic oxygen evolution. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta 1102: 269–352.
    book Diner BA and Babcock GT (1996) "Structure, dynamics, and energy conversion efficiency in photosystem II". In: Ort DR and Yocum CF (eds) Advances in Photosynthesis: Oxygenic Photosynthesis, The Light Reactions, pp. 213–247. Amsterdam: Kluwer Academic.
    Kok B, Forbush B and McGloin M (1970) Cooperation of charges in photosynthetic  O2 evolution–I. A linear four step mechanism. Photochemistry and Photobiology 11: 457–475.
    book Sauer K, Yachandra VK, Britt RD and Klein MP (1992) "The photosynthetic water oxidation complex studied by epr and x-ray absorption spectroscopy". In: Pecoraro VL (ed.) Manganese Redox Enzymes, pp. 141–175. New York: VCH.
    Yachandra VK, Sauer K and Klein MP (1996) Manganese cluster in photosynthesis: where plants oxidize water to dioxygen. Chemical Reviews 96: 2927–2950.

Related Sub-Topics:

Proteins: Structure, Function, Metabolism | Bioenergetics | Microbial Photosynthesis | Photosynthesis
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Article Title: Oxygen Production
 
How to Cite close
Britt, R David(Apr 2001) Oxygen Production. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1038/npg.els.0001384]